Teach For America teachers start school year in local charter schools

Caitlin Davis, a Columbus native, works with an I Can charter school third grader on a drawing project. Davis joined the school this year through Teach For America, a national recruitment and training program that came to Ohio this year.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Village Prep charter school had openings for nine teachers this school year.

The school hired seven from Teach for America.

The Northeast Ohio College Preparatory School had three openings. It filled two of them through Teach for America.

Charter schools in the region have tapped into the national recruitment and training program to fill 50 teaching positions this fall in Teach for America's first year in Ohio. The selective program draws on top college graduates, but they don't have to hold education degrees.

The Breakthrough charter school group, the parent organization of Village Prep, and the I Can charter school group, which runs the college preparatory school, each hired 18 Teach For America Teachers.

"Finally, they're here," said Jason Stragand, a co-founder of I Can, who said he has heard raves about Teach for America teachers when visiting successful schools around the country. "Finally we've caught on to things that other states have and I'm looking forward to all the things they're going to accomplish this school year."

The Breakthrough schools were just as excited that Teach for America was coming to Ohio. The charter school group already had Teach for America veterans in its classrooms and working as school leaders, including Jaclyn Stephens, the head of Village Prep, who jumped at the chance to bring new members of the corps aboard.

"They're mission-driven," Stephens said, who has worked with the seven new teachers in the school for two weeks of classes, plus more than a month of training Breakthrough does with its new teachers. "They have passion and energy. It's been wonderful."

Created in 1990, Teach for America does not require its participants to hold education degrees. Instead, the program selects high-performing students from a variety of majors who have a commitment to working with poor and often urban children. The program then gives participants an intense month of training and places them in needy schools.

More than 10,000 Teach for America teachers will be on the payrolls of schools in 36 states this school year.

Until this spring, Ohio law did not allow teachers to skip the traditional licensing routes to the classroom. But Gov. John Kasich and the legislature changed the law to clear the way for Teach for America.

Kasich said he wanted to attract bright, young people who want to help students and stop forcing Ohio residents who join Teach for America to work in other states.

Teach for America has since created a Northeast Ohio office and a Southwest Ohio office. Along with the 50 teachers placed in schools around Cleveland, another 30 Teach for America teachers landed in schools in the Cincinnati and Dayton areas for this school year. The Southwest Ohio office has also placed teachers in Covington, Ky.

Teach for America hopes to expand to schools in other areas around the state, including Columbus, Toledo and Youngstown. Though traditionalschool districts in Covington and near Cincinnati are using Teach for America, around Cleveland only charter schools -- publicly funded, but independently operated -- have partnered with the program.

Traditional districts often have hiring limitations because of union layoff and recall rules. And because Teach for America only started lining up Ohio schools this spring, many districts could not respond fast enough.

In addition to I Can and Breakthrough, the Constellation charter school group, the new Stepstone Academy in Cleveland'sCentral neighborhood and the Imagine Harvard Avenue Community School are using Teach for America.

Holly Davis, Teach for America's regional director, said she hopes to have 50 more teachers in the region next year. And she's hoping that other charter schools and districts will want to take part.

Though the school year is just starting, the schools and the new teachers both say they love the opportunity. Teachers said that I Can and Breakthrough, which have structured classrooms and month-long summer academies for new teachers,have given them a lot of support. And they say the schools are giving them a real opportunity to make a difference with urban children.

Caitlin Davis, a Columbus native and recent Ohio State University graduate, had taken time off from school and worked with a Columbus ice cream manufacturer before finishing her degree in food science. Now she teaches third grade for I Can in Tremont because she wants to help children with few opportunities.

"The education gap is real," she said.

Sarah Hernandez came to I Can this fall from a small Christian college in California, happy to go wherever she was needed to help children. She said she could have easily not had the opportunities she has and wants to help others.

"Everyone who's here, in Teach for America and I Can, really is committed to do what's best for the kids. What keeps me up at night is how to get these kids to college and in a way that they can be successful."

And Jillian Koehler, who is co-teaching second grade at Village Prep, said she applied to Teach for America because she fell in love with its mission of helping children in struggling neighborhoods.

Of course, being able to stay in Ohio and near her hometown of Southington, near Warren, was an extra plus. Of the 50 Teach for America teachers now in Northeast Ohio, 19 are from the state.